• dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I agree. And it goes the other way too. All the posturing by ICE and the AI-generated ragebait from the whitehouse, all just screams “what would I hate.” They’re making really bad moves, unable to understand how others think, feel, or make decisions. We could double-reverse-uno this situation and ask ourselves “what would they think we think?” It could change everything.

    and a lot less afraid of engaging with people we’ve been taught to fear and hate.

    I think we’re all in more trouble with that than we may realize.

    I encountered an instigator on Saturday. I found myself catapulted into a cyclone of rage all because of what he chose to wear: all pro-trump gear. Not because of what he was doing, which was next to nothing, nor what he was saying which was honestly not all that rage-inducing. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t engage creatively, I couldn’t demonstrate effectively, my empathy went right out the window. I just stood there, fuming and stun-locked. And that was one guy. It’s not like me, and I didn’t used to be like this.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I couldn’t think, I couldn’t engage creatively, I couldn’t demonstrate effectively, my empathy went right out the window. I just stood there, fuming and stun-locked. And that was one guy. It’s not like me, and I didn’t used to be like this.

      You are beautiful and smarter than you probably even think for recognizing and understanding this. We are ALL vulnerable to the conditions they created.

      We are being poisoned, and yeah it’s pretty well set-in at this point because it’s been ramping up for decades, but it’s not natural. It’s not just some consequence of division and politics, this cloud over our ability to engage is manufactured by very powerful systems and groups. They are all around us online, they are pushing our emotional buttons, they are stripping away our attention spans, they are feeding our brains narratives against our will and better reasoning. They do it on the left and right, they take the worst sides of every issue and make us unable to think clearly. It’s strategic exploitation of our human vulnerabilities and tools like AI are going to make it vastly more efficient.

      We can’t get the right to understand this is happening, they don’t have minds that work with abstractions and larger issues than what’s in front of them, but we CAN learn to recognize our own feelings and reinforce our sovereignty and use our better minds to change their feelings.

      As tired as the analogy is, there is a very real “waking up from the matrix” feeling to realizing how our own brains and feelings have been altered by forces outside of ourselves.